Soil Liquefaction Procedures—a Review

Abstract

Various procedures used for evaluating soil liquefaction are reviewed and compared. Major emphasis is given to the equivalent uniform cycle procedure and the cumulative damage approach. Simplified versions of these two procedures are used to evaluate the factor of safety against liquefaction for 41 actual cases where liquefaction has or has not occurred during past earthquakes. Good agreement was obtained between the actual observed behavior and the analytical results. Empirical correlations developed on the basis of Standard Penetration Test blow count data at sites that have been subjected to previous earthquakes are also mentioned. Liquefaction analyses performed for two sites using several of the methods described are presented. The results of these analyses gave similar factor of safety values. The need for careful selection of the input parameters and use of sound engineering judgement was found to be as important in liquefaction analyses as the methods used.